It’s the last traditional episode of the series and our final three become a final two. Who made the cut and will be competing in a match in FCW to determine the winner of Tough Enough? Find out now.
“This Is Our House Now”
Luke and Jeremiah celebrate being the top two in the competition, claiming the house as their own. Andy returns and expresses how angry he is at… well, the world. He’s the kind of guy that when they’re angry you just would not say a word because he looks like he could rip a human in half. The party animals attempt to speak to him in the kitchen but he palms them off and says he’ll see them at the end. Intense.
Daily Training
Right off the bat we establish there’s no theme for this week and the trainers will just be throwing things at them at random. Even Austin’s entrance to the gym is without its usual hoopla, so you know things are serious. They start off doing second rope turn-around crossbody’s and everybody does so well that all of the trainers are smiling. They move on to vaulting over each other in the corner and hitting a hip toss and Jeremiah in particular seems to have improved dramatically.
We hit our first snag of the session when Andy raises himself too high and comes down on Luke a little. He gets lectured of course, even though you wouldn’t see a guy of his size doing a vault in the corner. Not to worry, Luke messes up next by attempting a leap frog when one wasn’t specified. Jeremiah decides to get in on the party too by ducking down at the same time as Luke so they essentially head-butt each other. Bill throws them out of the ring and Booker tells them they all failed this task. This shows that no matter how much promise they’ve shown, they all have a long way to go before they’re ready to be on TV in front of a live crowd every week.
Style Me A Superstar
Austin, Trish and The Miz are posing by a car for a WWE photoshoot (wonder why Booker and Bill weren’t invited) and Miz talks to them about how important press and promotion are for a superstar. The three are taken to be dressed up and take turns to have a solo shoot for WWE magazine. Luke is of course a natural as he lives every day of his life like he’s a fashion model. Love him or hate him, he’s the only one of the contestants who was going to embrace this aspect of superstardom. Andy is as you’d expect, out of his element and after several bland, awkward shots he gets coaxed out of his shell by Miz, Trish and Austin and begins to do some looser, more flamboyant stuff such as playing his belt like a guitar. Jeremiah goes next and looks strange wearing a suit. He poses without his teeth in which draws a funny reaction from Miz.
There’s no real winner to this, and Miz takes off after reminding them he’s awesome. It was a breath of fresh air seeing Miz being genuine and nice to people. You can scoff at this all you want, but Miz was right, this is going to be a big part of their lives if they win.
More Training
Our remaining trio take turns shoulder tackling Bill, and then irish whipping each other into the corners. After a brief lesson from Trish of all people about standing up tall, Andy begins to look more and more impressive, powering Luke and Jeremiah around the ring and adding in some big boots. Luke isn’t to be outdone though and executes a picture perfect dropkick, earning him a stunned handshake from Bill. Jeremiah’s MMA instincts to get on his opponent as fast as possible prove wrong and he’s told to slow things down a little, and he too shows instant improvement. Remarkable what a few words of wisdom have done for these guys.
Giving Back
In a touching segment, Stone Cold takes the final three to the children’s wing of a local hospital and takes them one at a time to visit some kids. The brash, arrogant Luke seems to be knocked back a little, and I mean that in a positive way, as he grasps the gravitas of the impact wrestlers have on the lives of children. Andy, as a family man feels for the kids and gets a good luck wish from a little girl, and finally Jeremiah visits a very sick girl and entertains her with a magic trick involving his disappearing teeth. He says he lost his cousin to cancer and so being in the hospital with ill children means a lot to him. Austin is proud of all three of them, and it was nice to see this kind of thing, as it’s another large aspect of being a wrestler.
Skills Challenge: Putting It All Together
Essentially Austin calls out sequences of moves, changing them on the fly, lengthening them, altering them and the contestants have to react accordingly. Leapfrogs, tackles, running the ropes, arm drags, dropping elbows, going up top, you name it, it’s here. Andy and Luke look good, and Jeremiah does in spots, but he also botches small things like a hip toss. Amusingly, he drops a Brian Cage-Taylor style elbow (side somersault before dropping it so that you land on the opposite side of your opponent) which draws praise.
I’m not really sure how this was a challenge and the two training sessions were not, but Bill did say they were being judged and that the trainers could not help them. I couldn’t really name you a winner out of Luke and Andy, but both looked good.
The Final Three
After packing their bags, wishing each other luck, and doing some shots (water for Andy) they assemble in the ring for the last time. This is the first time Austin has gotten to grill Jeremiah and they talk about his time in the army. Austin asks him if he’s there for a lifetime or because he felt like giving it a try one day and he takes the sensible answer. He talks to Andy about being mentally tough and the big man openly admits it’s mentally challenging leaving his pregnant wife and child behind. Austin points out that Jeremiah has a 7 year old son, and the former MMA fighter says “he knows when daddy’s at work”.
Jeremiah calls Andy soft and claims he’s emotionally stronger than everyone in the room. Austin is quick to point out he’s the strongest but smiles when gets Jeremiah to say he’s tougher than Luke. Austin says Luke is nothing more than a pretty mechanic (isn’t that half the current roster?) and mocks Luke for stating the obvious and being too proud of dropping a mean elbow.
Hilariously, Luke calls Jeremiah arrogant. The country boy brushes it off and just says “I got skills, WTF?” and Luke says his skills are better. Nice way to pick apart your own argument. Austin condemns Andy for crying at times and asks him what he thinks of Luke. He says he’s got 0% potential in the business and is uncomfortable in his own skin. Luke tries to brush this off with arrogance but Austin refuses to back down on the fact he’s twitchy and his laugh is a nervous one. Andy admits he doesn’t bring it every day, but Austin moves back to Jeremiah and grills him about his recklessness.
The Final Decision
Austin tells Jeremiah that being green caught up with him and though it isn’t by much he will be going home. He says that it was close and this rookie nearly sent the other two home. He shakes his hand and tells him he’s proud. He won’t take his belt and makes him hand it over instead. Jeremiah takes it gracefully and leaves with a smile.
That leaves Luke and Andy and they will be competing one on one for five minutes in FCW and whoever impresses not just Austin, but WWE management the most will win the contract. They all celebrate with some Steveweisers (even Andy) and both guys talk about how much they want it.
Overall Thoughts
This was one of the strongest episodes of the entire show, if not the strongest. With all the outright morons eliminated, the wrestling was of a good standard and was the most varied it’s ever been, truly testing them on every aspect of their training to date. When you couple that with the little extra touches such as promotional shoots and visiting the children, this was essentially WWE finishing school, as they each got a taste of what it would actually be like to be a superstar.
The trainers were fair in their assessments, and didn’t really show any bias, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. Austin made the right choice too, as Jeremiah was just not fundamentally sound enough to be chosen ahead of the other two. Finally, I’m a huge fan of the way this is going to be settled: with each guy getting in the ring and wrestling a real match in front of real fans. The time for hypotheticals is over, it’s time to throw these two into the big time and see what they do with it.
Contestant Evaluation
Luke has the better look, a better attitude, and is technically sound. He’s born straight from the pretty-boy with plain black trunks school of wrestling, and while that may be boring to a lot of people reading this, it’s what’s hot right now in the WWE. He’s comfortable being in front of a camera, and though he’s arrogant, that arrogance will serve him well if he gets to be a heel. He cut a decent enough promo, but Austin may be right that there isn’t a lot behind his eyes, and his struggled when it came to entertaining that tour bus. I don’t personally care for the guy due to his cocky demeanour, but I can’t fault that he’s been the most consistent in-ring performer. I think he’s been the favourite from the word go, and if I’m not mistaken that’s him silhouetted raising a belt in the opening title sequence.
Andy was one of my favourites from the word go, right back when he was barely heard from. There are times he’s come across as a sulking teenager, and I’m stunned that his habit of making comments and interrupting in the eliminations didn’t get him thrown out like Matt Cross, but Austin was provoking him on purpose to awaken the giant within him. When that giant is awake, he looks great in the ring, standing tall and throwing the other contestants about. But when it’s asleep he looks just as bad as Eric. I stand by the fact I think it’s unfair to ask him to perform leapfrogs and top rope moves with the same proficiency as the others because these are not he moves he’ll be doing if he wins, but he’s met these challenges head on. He’s not as comfortable with the showmanship side of things as Luke, but when he’s motivated enough he’s looked passable. I don’t think he’s going to win, but I’m less sure of that than I was a few weeks ago.
Ultimately I think Luke will win this competition, but Andy will get an FCW developmental contract because they won’t want to pass on his size. Jeremiah could make it if the staff are patient enough with him to work on his fundamentals. It might be nice to see Martin and Ivelisse be given a fair shake down in Florida too after both performed well but were forced to withdraw due to injury. Christina and Rima seem a lock to get some kind of contract too.